We asked our clients to give honest accounts of their experiences working with Horsfield & Smith. It's safe to say we're proud of the responses they provided, demonstrating the power of our truly personalised services.
Whatever your line of business, you should find an echo of the challenges you face and the ambition you're pursuing in the case studies below.
A Bury manufacturer moved away from regular spreadsheet duplication and into connected cloud accounting and MRP processes.
Read the story
A growing business gained regular management accounts, daily bookkeeping, KPI monitoring and monthly strategy meetings.
Read the storyHow Horsfield & Smith helped a specialist manufacturer modernise finance and operational systems at a key moment of change.
Our client is based in Bury and manufactures bespoke radiation detection and shielding equipment. After the retirement of their company accountant, they were looking to change their internal systems by transforming to digital processes.
They wanted to link both the accounting system and the MRP system together, streamlining the business and improving overall company efficiency.
The retirement of the company accountant created an opportunity to review how the business was run. Horsfield & Smith helped develop a plan for digital transformation and identified cloud-based systems as the right route forward.
“We performed a review, then met with the client and existing staff to see what reports they produced and where we could see possible long term time savings and efficiencies.”Lee Sugden, Director, Horsfield & Smith
Xero was recommended as the accounting system, alongside a suitable CRM and MRP solution.
JCS trialled the MRP software before implementation. This gave the team time to learn the system without disrupting day-to-day operations, while the Flowlens knowledge base supported ongoing training.
“It just worked, as far as I am concerned, like a dream. It connected to Xero perfectly and everything seemed to move along very, very smoothly.”Lee Sugden, Director, Horsfield & Smith
JCS ran the business using numerous Excel spreadsheets. The system worked, but it was inefficient, duplicated information, made reporting tedious and left management information out of date.
“We were operating the best part of 15 spreadsheets that we needed to touch on a regular basis.”Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Horsfield & Smith worked with staff members to understand what they required, helping the team feel involved in the selection process while recognising that some operational change would be needed.
“We had early buy-in. We knew we needed to modernise.”Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
Using Flowlens and Xero together gave the management team a real-time dashboard covering sales orders, enquiries and conversions, making it easier to understand performance and act on current information.
“The impact has been nothing but positive at all levels within the operation of the company.”Oliver Caunt, Managing Director, JCS Nuclear Solutions
How regular management information and cloud accounting helped the directors move beyond running the business from the bank balance.
iConservatories is a manufacturer of solid timber roofs for conservatories.
Horsfield & Smith advised that management accounts, prepared at least quarterly, were essential for a company of its size. Those accounts would be supported by quarterly meetings to discuss business performance.
The team also stressed the importance of looking forward, rather than only reviewing historic performance. To make that possible, they suggested daily bookkeeping instead of once-a-quarter processing.
The business was growing, but the directors felt held back by a lack of information on profitability until accounts were prepared at the end of the financial year.
The company had outgrown its previous accountant, with bookkeeping prepared on SAGE quarterly for VAT returns. In practice, the directors were running the business from their bank balance.
The client converted from SAGE desktop to Xero cloud accounting and has not looked back. Horsfield & Smith now manage bookkeeping daily and in real time.
The company has gone from strength to strength, including purchasing its own building and moving from rented premises in early 2018.
Horsfield & Smith now prepare monthly management accounts, monitor key performance indicators, hold monthly strategy meetings and carry out tax planning exercises to minimise corporation tax.
"Horsfield & Smith have become part of the finance team."